We all love coffee. What would you say about a personal coffee shop, right in your kitchen? With the futuristic Dolce Gusto it is now possible! The single serve coffee maker makes great Lungo, Aroma, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato Ice, Chococino and three types of espresso. Dolce Gusto does not only look fantastic, it’s smart and user-friendly: equipped with a 15 bar pressure pump and an automatic pressure adjuster, it extracts the best flavors and delivers the drink of your choice the best way it can be prepared. Also, it saves energy by going to stand-by after being idle for more than 20 minutes. Enhanced by a blue LED back light, the modern Dolce Gusto coffee maker comes in 4 colors: white or charcoal gray for € 150, and metal red or grey for € 180. [via]

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Dolce Gusto: Your Own Personal Coffee Shop

As its name implies, Chillchaser chases away cold. The UK-based company offers three exciting and eco-friendly patio heaters – Neptune, Zeus and Poseidon. The heating system of the designer home appliances consists of a carbon fibre heating – a system used in hospitals, it offers a natural and healthy form of heat. Some of the features of the modern patio heaters are focused infrared heating, up to 4 meters effective heating area at 110° angle, automatic ON/OFF switch depending on peoples proximity and remote control; Poseidon also offers also a built in media player. Contemporary design, zero CO2 emissions, versatile heating options ad lots of other features – not bad for a “simple” heater.

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Chillchaser Patio Heaters Chase The Chill Away

Kitchen appliances may look really jaw-dropping, just like these amazing Pando Evolution Line’s creations. The modern kitchen hood series not only provide powerful aspiration, but also serves as a decorative piece that instantly turns your regular kitchen into a designer kitchen. To suit your needs best, Pando offer customized exhaused hood designs with different sizes, finishes, motors and optional remote controls. You wouldn’t mind such a play of light, shade and shine in your kitchen, would you?

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Designer Kitchen Hoods by Pando Evolution Line

When the weather gets cold, there is nothing better to warm you up than a fireplace. We  used to think about fireplaces as something big and not suitable for the needs of a small home. The Tulip fireplace by Biofireplace proves us wrong – it is as big as a regular heater. You may have noticed – there is no chimney; because it doesn’t need one – the contemporary fireplace uses bioethanol that burns clean, smoke and ash-free. Its sleek design, made by Matteo Ragni, makes it a centerpiece of any room and a great addition to any modern home.

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Tulip fireplace by Biofireplace: stylish and spacesaving

And as a result he has come up with a completely original fan. You have never seen a fan like this, I’ll bet. There are no blades at all like on regular fans. Dyson’s newest invention is a completely bladeless room fan called the Air Multiplier.

This is a totally new, innovative approach to moving air efficiently, powered by a motor like a jet turbine or a turbocharger. What is more amazing is that this actually blows relatively little air, yet multiplies it 15-fold to 118 gallons of air a second. Now that is true energy efficiency. Apparently the wind it generates feels like a natural breeze.

But, to be honest – the part I like best? How super easy this fan would be to keep clean! I have a really disgustingly dusty fan in the basement – that I never use because I’m too lazy to clean all those grills and blades and bits and pieces on the damn thing.

So many industrial designers forget about hassle factor, but it is important. So this invention gets my Bad Housekeeping Award.

Source: Fast Company

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Innovative Energy-Efficient Fan Has No Blades

Take these points into consideration when making the big choice:

1) What’s the temperature and humidity level like where you live? In some very humid climates stainless steel holds up better than other types of appliances that have the tendency to corrode.

2) How likely are you to be frustrated by fingerprints and streaks? Stainless steel appliances show fingerprints, grease and smudges much more easily than white appliances. On the other hand, owners of stainless steel stoves report that they clean up easily, sometimes more easily than their white counterparts.

3) How design conscious are you? Because stainless steel and granite countertops have become ubiquitous in standard tract homes across the country, they are not likely to remain in vogue for long. Within a few years, stainless steel appliances may scream 2002, and you may not want to send that message.

4) Do you have children? Stainless steel tends to dent and it can scratch. It can also be noisy if it is not properly stabilized on an appliance.

5) Will stainless steel fit with your kitchen aesthetic? Stainless steel is sleek, urban, industrial and commercial-looking. It may look out of place in a rustic country kitchen or in a retro-style kitchen. Most customers seem to prefer stainless steel with dark wood and warmer cabinet colors, although in truth, stainless steel usually looks good with any cabinet color, as long as there is warmth somewhere in the kitchen. Paring stainless steel with high-gloss lacquer cabinets will make a kitchen feel ultra high-tech and colder.

6) Will you be able to get the same stainless steel for all your appliances? There are different kinds of stainless steel. The stainless steel on your refrigerator should match that of your stove, microwave and dishwasher. Check out the stainless steel carefully on the appliances you want to buy to be sure the pattern and handles match.

7) Are you replacing only one appliance? If so, your one stainless steel appliance is likely to stick out if it is combined with white or colored appliances. Stainless steel usually blends better with black appliances.

Photo: Eric Roth

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Design Dilemma: Stainless Steel Vs. White

Most of that energy is wasted every time you open the door. Cold air is heavier (warm air rises, remember?) so it falls out onto the floor every time you open your fridge, and warm air from outside rises to fill the space it left. But with a top opening fridge; even if you leave the door wide open, gravity effortlessly keeps the heavy cold air down, inside the fridge.

Using this principle, a clever Australian inventor, Tom Chalko has converted a deep freeze into an incredibly efficient refrigerator.

He chose a freezer because they are top opening. The only difference between a freezer and a fridge is the temperature maintained inside: freezers are colder.

Freezers maintain freezing  temperatures, while fridges operate somewhere between 0 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. But, if converted to a fridge, it only has to run for a minute or two every hour to maintain normal fridge temperatures. So turning a freezer into a fridge just meant installing a simple external thermostat to cut the power off when it reaches the temperature that Tom set.

(Carried away with his energy reduction; he also took out the 15 watt interior light bulb, but he will reconsider this, if he ever finds some reason “for opening my fridge in the dark.”)

His home-made fridge uses much energy in 24 hours as a 100 Watt light bulb gets through in just an hour.

Not only is it energy efficient; but it’s absolutely silent too. The thing is only running for a minute or two every hour. At all other times it is perfectly quiet and consumes no power whatsoever.

I wonder why no company has thought of this easy way to cut energy use in fridges?

All you clever designers out there; leave your thoughts on how to make a top-open fridge easy to get stuff in and out of. You just need a way for drawers to slide up, so you can access the depths without leaning down into a huge box. Devise your system so it needs no electricity, of course.

Via Build It Solar

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Green Fridge Invention Uses Almost No Electricity

One of the top 50 entries in the Greener Gadgets Competition, this idea for the RITI Coffee printer offers an

1. Incredibly repulsive way to make a complete mess of your printing jobs.
2. Cheap way to avoid replacing your ink cartridge so soon (why do they run out so fast!)
3. Or a way to green your morning ritual: by turning your old coffee grounds into a sustainable source of ink for your printer.

Gushes Inhabitat: “One of fifty top entries in this year’s  the RITI printer takes the leftover grounds from your morning roast and plugs them into an ink cartridge to create an eco-friendly source of ink. Who would have ever guessed coffee stains could be be so useful!”

Well, no, actually. Coffee grounds are useful. You make earth out of them. That’s about the most important job on the planet for coffee grounds. Composting is about the easiest way to find the best use for coffee grounds.

But here is how this thing works, supposedly…

Supposedly you are so buzzed with your coffee that you want to try and first get your grounds into this tiny container (quite a messy job in itself), and then scrape the little plastic holder from side to side to squeeze out the, um, “ink” while it prints.

Hosted by Core77 and Inhabitat, this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition resulted in an incredible crop of innovative consumer electronics designs, but  Jeon Hwan Ju’s RITI printer is not one of them.

From InHabitat

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Dump Coffee Grinds In Your Printer????

Who said barbecues had to be something unappealing and rustic? Thanks to Element now you can barbecue with style! Created by Fuego in partnership with Vinotemp, this modern grill is actually a scaled-down version of Fuego 01 and is fully packed with cooking options. The Element barbecue can serve as a convection roasting oven, and through the optional pizza stone it easily turns into a pizza oven or a griddle. Designed by Robert Brunner (former Apple industrial designer) the sleek 27-inches grill comes in 4 color options and would easily find its proper place in the yard of every contemporary home. Element by Fuego is expected in May 2009 and should cost from $400 (silver, white and red) to $600(stainless).

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Element by Fuego: Grilling becomes Thrilling

Regarded as something conventional and not very attractive, radiators are often hidden because of their unpleasing looks. However, this is about to change. Designers’ imagination knows no boundaries and has grown enough to make out of radiators something sophisticated and beautiful – a true work of art. These heating sources’ forms and element connections are so unusual that it is hard to grasp their purpose at first sight. You will recognize them by their lightweight structure, quality finishing and most of all their originality. Whether it is a relief picture on the wall, a sculpture or even a chaise-longue, the “artistic” radiator will surely bring lots of warmth – to you and to your home’s interior.

designer radiators by Cordivari

designer radiators by Cordivari

designer radiators by Cordivari

designer radiators by Cordivari

designer radiators by Designer warmth

designer radiators by Designer Warmth

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Designer radiators – a true work of art